Boris Johnson is "sure and certain" that the UK will return to normality by spring after they approved the first vaccine on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister said our neighbours are no longer resting on the hope the UK will be back to normal by spring, but now "sure and certain" in the "knowledge we will succeed".
But in Ireland, with no vaccine yet approved, there has been no such big claims made about normality being restored.
A vaccine is expected to be rolled out in the new year, with the elderly and vulnerable first on the list.
And speaking at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting on Wednesday, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar predicted widespread immunity by September.
This would almost definitely herald the return of all the things Irish people are missing most, from seeing family and friends, going to matches, socialising in nightclubs and pubs as well as jetting off on holidays.
A day prior, the Tanaiste told a Commerce group in Laois that he is "hopeful" Electric Picnic will go ahead next summer.
He added: '"Hopefully by the middle of 2021 we will be back to a level of normality in terms of going on holidays, matches, events."
Over in the US, who expect to rollout the vaccine in a similar timeline to us in Ireland, Dr Anthony Fauci is targeting a late summer return to normal.
When asked about filling sports stadiums by Yahoo Sports, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said it will be near September when that begins to happen.
Dr Fauci said: "By the time you get to the general public, the people who'll be going to the basketball games, who don't have any underlying conditions, that's gonna be starting the end of April, May, June.
"So it probably will be well into the end of the summer before you can really feel comfortable [with full sports stadiums] – if a lot of people get vaccinated. I don't think we're going to be that normal in July. I think it probably would be by the end of the summer."
No such official statements have been given in Ireland with the Government concentrating on getting the vaccine approved and making a plan for its distribution.
Mr Donnelly was on RTE’s News at One responding to this spectacular development in the UK on Wednesday, where he said: “What I’m told is that, quite like the UK, the UK is taking seven to 10 days from authorisation to distribution, the view is that within Ireland it would be about the same.”
